The report reminds me of the wonderful movie: “Bread and Roses” by Ken Loach about janitors and unions in the US.

Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, argued: “The behavior of these companies casts serious doubt on the value of voluntary commitments to human rights”. In the press release the NGO criticizes the labour law system in the US for many mistakes. However, the report also demands stronger standard setting and complaints mechanisms by international organizations (e.g. ILO, OECD) and that managers in the headquarters better watch their management staff in the US.

The article made me wonder, in how far we can take for granted that ILO core norms are complied with in factories in the EU-27 countries. My guess is that the legal system in many EU members protect workers even less than in the US. However, why then do various actors talk of EU(27) countries as “low risk countries” regarding the violation of ILO codes? Public procurement often also neglects ILO norms when sourcing from the “low risk” EU market.